


Paradise Is Always Where Love Dwells

by afteriwake



Category: Bleach
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-15
Updated: 2012-07-15
Packaged: 2017-11-10 01:27:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 969
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/460707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She spent ten years searching for home, and only when she found him again did she find it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Paradise Is Always Where Love Dwells

She didn’t know what she was doing there. Karakura Town wasn’t even home. Had she been asked before, she would have said Naruki City, but after everything, that didn’t seem like home anymore, either. When she left Urahara Shoten she didn’t know where she would go. She just wanted to find home.

And so she had travelled. Her parents, they were simply glad she wasn’t hanging around “them” anywhere, and they supported her initial travelings. Osaka, Tokyo, Nagasaki…she traveled all over Japan, and still the restless feelings wouldn’t leave. She would settle in a place for a little while, get a job to support herself, but she made no friends and lived in an economical place that she never personalized. It was a place to lay her head, nothing more.

After a while Yukio found her, and offered her a job. She had blurted out she didn’t want to stay in Japan, and after a moment he paused. She was almost afraid he’d take it back, but then he said he had the perfect job for her. And so she represented his company all over the world, traveling to many different places. Slowly, she grew and evolved into a polished business woman, leaving behind the things that had defined her as a spoiled brat for so long.

Even though she set up her home base in Tokyo she was rarely there. She was in America a lot, and Europe as well. But even those places, none of them grabbed her as home, a place to plant her feet firmly and grow into something more than a business woman. To grow into a true woman with an actual relationship, and maybe a family down the line.

She had gotten so used to being alone that it had been with a shock that she realized it had been ten years since Tsukishima and Ginjou had done what they had done. Ten years of travel and fleeting romances and work. Ten years of homesickness, or rather not knowing where home was. So when she saw him, she was shocked. Ichigo Kurosaki looked exactly the same as he had before, only a little more muscular, and just a little taller.

The fact that he had recognized her surprised him. Her hair was still its same wild pink shade, and that was something not even Yukio could get her to change, but she wore it in a French twist now, or loose around her shoulders now that it was shorter. She wore glasses now, ones that made her look mature but were stylish, silver wire frames with thin lenses. And her mode of dress was not so much gothic Lolita now, though she did accentuate her cleavage in most of her non-work outfits.

But he came up to her, asked if she was Riruka Dokugamine, and when she said yes and asked if he was Ichigo Kurosaki, a wide smile formed on his face. The fact that he smiled sent this load off her shoulder that she hadn’t known was there. It meant he didn’t hold the events of that night against her. He asked if she was busy, she said no, and then he asked her for coffee, to catch up.

And then one thing led to another, and they spent time together, just hanging out. She felt different around him. She didn’t need to be serious or mature. She could be a little silly, a little immature. She could smile more, and she felt comfortable in her skin, oh so very comfortable. But all good things come to an end, and he told her he’d only been in Tokyo for business and he had to leave after a week. She decided to make that last week spectacular.

While Tokyo hadn’t been home, she had explored, so she took him on a “locals tour,” and did things that she’d done before, only this time she enjoyed them more because she wasn’t alone. When the week was over he hugged her and told her to come see him in Karakura Town when she got a chance. Her response was a soft kiss on the lips. She had meant it to be quick and fleeting, to mean nothing more than affection, but when they pulled apart he pulled her back in, deepening it, lengthening it. Ten years had evaporated in a week, and she knew that her life had fundamentally changed.

And so now she was standing outside his apartment door, her hand poised to knock. But she was nervous. It was one kiss; what would it mean now, a month later? Yes, there had been phone calls and texts and even a videoconference when she was in Germany, but now…this was a big step. She had told him of her decision to leave Tokyo a week ago, to move her home base closer to him. What she hadn’t told him was she was taking fewer assignments abroad, to see if whatever it was they had would really work.

Finally, she knocked. It only took a minute, but he was there, wide grin on his face. Her arrival wasn’t a surprise, it was planned, but the grin on his face showed her that he actually wanted to see her, and the breathtaking kiss that followed convinced her. “Hey,” he said when he was done, his arm around her, keeping her close like he never wanted to lose her again.

“Hey,” she said quietly, warm smile on her face. She knew now, without a shadow of a doubt, that wherever he was, she would find home. She would cherish him, and build a life here with him, and make the home she’d been searching for for so long. That was where her heart lead her, and her heart would be what she followed now.


End file.
